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Fords, Nissans to run lighter panels at Albert Park

The Ford and Nissan Supercars squads are set to debut lighter panels in time for the Albert Park round this weekend, in a bid to match the brand new ZB Commodore in terms of minimum weight.

Rick Kelly, Nissan Motorsport

Rick Kelly, Nissan Motorsport

Nissan Motorsports

David Reynolds, Erebus Motorsport Holden
Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Fabian Coulthard, DJR Team Penske Ford
Rick Kelly, Nissan Motorsport
Mark Winterbottom, Tickford Racing Ford

The ZB Commodore caused a stir when it debuted in Adelaide earlier this month, with teams running rival brands unhappy that the new car was able to fall so far under the 1410 kilogram minimum weight, and therefore run ballast.

The controversy was centred around the use of composite panels on the roof, boot lid, and rear firewall.

Nissan Motorsport and Ford teams DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing are now both set to roll out composite panels of their own as they look to save weight, with Supercars confirming via its official website that the parts will be reviewed for homologation approval before track action starts on Thursday.

According to the report from the series, Nissan Motorsport will run composite roofs on all four of its Altimas at Albert Park, while the leading Ford crews will not have the new parts available to all of its cars in time for the Grand Prix.

“We’ve had to do a huge amount of work in a lot of areas to get back to a level playing field with what the new Holden has turned out to be,” Kelly told the series website.

“We’ve had a pretty serious couple of weeks since Adelaide, the guys have dug deep and done an outstanding job to achieve what we have.

“All of the things we aimed to do have been completed and on the cars, including composite roofs across all four cars, so we’re ready to roll.”

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